Today, I’m taking a look back at Goodnight Sweetheart, the 1990s BBC sitcom that blended comedy, drama, and time travel, starring Nicholas Lyndhurst, Victor McGuire, and Christopher Ettridge.
I’ve been a fan of the British sitcom Goodnight Sweetheart since I first saw an episode in the late ’90s. It was the one where the main character gets struck by lightning and splits into several personas. I was only 9 then and didn’t understand the context, but I found it entertaining enough. Elders in my family remembered the series fondly, so it stuck in my consciousness for many years.
My fandom peaked in the mid-2000s when ITV3 regularly aired the show. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve watched The Adventures of Gary Sparrow. Despite Gary Sparrow being an unlikable character, I still feel connected to him and his two worlds.
I also feel a great sense of personal connection to this show, as I shared it with sadly departed relatives. The show’s engaging characters, good humour, and a good sense of the eras it depicted made it a must-watch. My favourite character from the show is Ron Wheatcroft, possibly one of the best side characters ever to grace a sitcom. His loyalty to Gary essentially costs him everything, yet he still tries to make the best of it.
There was also a great amount of drama in this sitcom, thanks to the wartime setting of half the show. No matter how many times I rewatch the show, I’m always in awe of Marks and Gran’s writing. I believe very few British sitcoms would attempt one episode featuring bleak scenes of Gary experiencing the serious effects of fire watching, then another frolicking around pubs with George Formby;
Let us not forget the episode where Gary helps tackle racism in the Royal Oak, while also assisting Ron in the assembly of his vintage jeep. Goodnight Sweetheart has many episodes that take different tonal directions. The beauty lies in how effortlessly it navigates these shifts.. Representing the wartime period with respect yet allowing room for humour must have been a difficult challenge.
The show ran for six series and underwent several changes. The early episodes have a gentler pace, and a darker edge to the storytelling. The characters were all likeable in their own way and felt true to life. It spends time setting everything up, but it wastes no time in getting to the point.
The later series expanded on the comedic possibilities to the point it began to jump the shark a little. They changed the actresses, and suddenly the tone changed. Despite the fantastical premise, there was always a part of Goodnight Sweetheart that felt real. However, the later episodes took the fantasy element to an extreme. In a couple of series, Gary comes up against time portal policing, has a photograph taken by Cecil Beaton and gets cloned! As much as these episodes often frustrated me as a viewer, I still admire the show’s makers for trying to push the envelope.
Following a recent re-watch of the series on ITVX, I was delighted to see that the show was being covered in their new book by Paul Burton. Hopefully, at some point, I shall pick up a copy of this, and read about behind-the-scenes and testimony from people involved.
What is Goodnight Sweetheart?
Sweetheart began airing on BBC One in 1993. It ran for 59 episodes over 6 series until 1999, with a one-off special in 2016. The cast included Nicholas Lyndhurst, Michelle Holmes, Emma Amos, Victor McGuire, and Christopher Ettridge. The show centers on Gary Sparrow, a TV repairman who discovers a time portal that takes him back to 1940s London, leading him to live a double life between the past and the present, complicating his relationships with his wife in the 1990s and his new love interest in the 1940s.
